School districts make sensible security decisions

We were heartened by the actions of two of Chester County’s largest public school districts this past week in relation to providing the best environment for their students to learn safely in.

Heartened because officials in the Downingtown Area School District and Tredyffrin Easttown School District took positive steps to make sure their student were safe, but also that those steps were common sense ones, and not moves made in a “grab-a-gun” frenzy displayed by some in he wake of the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn.,

In Downingtown, board members approved a decision to replace and upgrade “defective” security cameras at Downingtown East High School, Downingtown Middle School and Lionville Middle School. The Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Academy will also receive security upgrades in the form of access controls, an intercom, and a camera for the front of the building. The new controls are expected to be able to function with the access control system that was installed at the school during the summer.

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Board member Carl K. Croft, vice chairman of the district’s facilities committee, said during the meeting that the decision to update the schools’ security was not in response to the Dec. 14 tragedy in Newtown, Conn. “A lot of security issues were in the budget way before the tragedy up in Connecticut,” said Croft.

We recognize that, but also recognize that the board members have continued on a path set by their own knowledge and forethought and not based on reactions to current events.

Meanwhile, Tredyffrin-Easttown School District officials, top township police officers and others addressed school safety issues Wednesday night at Valley Forge Middle School to a large audience who peppered the officials with worthwhile questions about those matters. School district Superintendent Dan Waters announced that there will be a “safety audit at each school” in the district, as there had been after the Columbine and Virginia Tech school-shooting incidents.

Altough he told the audience that “you won’t like all the measures we put in place,” we take him to mean that it that the new system may make it more difficult for the average parent to get into a school, and not that they would actually put staff and children in more danger, say by condoning the possession of handguns by teachers on school property.

Conestoga High School Assistant Principal Andrew Phillips, for example, said that visitors will now be asked to show a photo ID before entering a school building. Those who cannot state legitimate business or a reason for visiting will be denied entrance. He said the district was “upfront and proactive regarding safety.”